Clean Eating, Part Deux!

My inner fat girl tries to take over and become my outer self pretty much every single day of my life. It's not that hard for me to go to yoga and to the gym to lift, but it is a big struggle for me to not undo all that hard work through a lousy diet. (See my post on food addiction here.) I'm having to retrain my brain a bit that healthy eating is not all about deprivation and discomfort. It's about loving myself and getting smarter about my love for food.

This Labor Day weekend, the challenge is to hang out at the lake house and still eat clean. This will be a bit easier because it will just be me, girl child and mom rather than the entire crew. Let's see how it goes. Call it practice for the next trip or two.

I knew that Mom was planning a spaghetti dinner for Friday night. Challenge accepted.

My mom makes the best meat sauce. Ever. Her secret is to mix ground beef and ground sausage and to add minced garlic at the beginning, middle, and end of cooking. She also adds minced garlic, garlic salt, and butter or oil to the pasta as soon as it is drained. Sometimes I make the pasta fresh. However, in the spirit of getting lean and heart healthy, I just couldn't do it this time. I've been murdering myself at the gym, and it's painful to throw that away on a plate of pasta. So, I got a spaghetti squash, microwaved it, and replaced the buttery pasta with squash. A basic substitution that I am certainly not the first to do, but one that made me feel good and allowed me to have Mom's awesome sauce. Because my mom is awesome sauce.

Another difficultly I have at family gatherings is the snacking. At the lake, we snack and snack and snack, and there's a giant pantry full of all things #badformyass. Clearly, processed chips are a poor choice. However, these quick refrigerator pickles are fantastic for satisfying that craving with minimal calories and as much or as little salt as you choose to put in the brine. I made some fresh ones Friday morning just for this trip and hauled them down with me to share.

I don't water bath or pressure can these because I go through them pretty quickly, and I can't abide a soggy pickle. To make your own pickled okra, cucumbers (get the long English cucumbers individually wrapped in plastic or the short little pickling cucumbers. Regular cucumbers don't hold up as well), or carrots, you just need to make a brine and have some glass jars handy. In a non-reactive pot, combine water, vinegar, pickling or kosher salt (the anti-caking agent in table salt is not so good for pickling) and whatever seasoning you like. You can choose between white or apple cider vinegar (I like white for dill pickling and apple cider for other variations). I like some dill, red pepper flakes, and bay leaves in my standard pickle. You can play around and see what you like: juniper berries, rosemary/thyme, etc.... Heat your brine and stir until the salt dissolves. I like to make a big batch, so in my pot, I combine 6 cups filtered water, 3 cups vinegar, 1/2 cup (or less) pickling salt, and my spices. Heat the brine until the salt is all dissolved and remove from heat.

Your brine can cook your pickles. For a hard veggie like carrots, I add hot brine to soften them a bit. I like a crispy cucumber pickle, so I wait until the brine is room temperature to pour it over the cukes. You can also tuck onion, garlic cloves (they may turn funky colors, but are fine), and hot peppers in with your veggies. You can also use this recipe, minus spices, for jalapeños.

While you wait for your brine to cool, pack your jars. Pack 'em tight so your pickles don't float to the surface. Use glass jars. When your brine is at the desired temp, pour it over the veggies. I let mine sit on the counter, lid off, until they reach room temp before I put the lid on and refrigerate. If you have left over brine, put it in a jar and save it for when you have some veggies that need saving. You can also reuse the brine a few times. When it starts getting cloudy (usually after about three rotations of veggies), throw it out and start over. The point here is that you can make yourself a really fantastic, healthy snack that is super inexpensive and made to your own preferences. I love to keep brine ready to go in the fridge so I can just toss in some veggies and have a brilliant snack or something tart to add to a meal (they're best after they've sat for at least two days).

On to the Saturday night challenge: burgers. Dammit. I love a good burger, and I know there would be big, fluffy buns (don't make rude comments here), tons of cheese, and four varieties of chips. Damn. What to do?

So I made carrot fries. They're actually good! I cut carrots into match sticks, tossed them with 1/2 T. olive oil, two minced garlic cloves, and a pinch of garlic salt. I baked them at 350 for about 15-20 minutes until they were tender. Very garlicky. Yum. 

As for the burger, I went bunless and cheeseless, but I added avocado, pesto, and some mustard with some of my pickles. I didn't even miss the other stuff!

Instead of chips, I went with the carrot fries and some cabbage (I sauteed the cabbage with smoked paprika, garlic salt, white pepper, and apple cider vinegar--lots of flavor!).

Sunday morning breakfast is a serious thing at the lake house, regardless of the holiday. Usually, my dad makes omelets filled with ham, buttery cooked mushrooms, sour cream and cheese served with bacon and/or sausage and English muffins and/or orange rolls. Plus mimosas if we're good girls! Sigh. So here's my take. I fried some eggs with just a light spray of olive oil based non stick spray and tossed some shrimp into the pan as my treat (I pre-seasoned the shrimp with garlic salt and pepper).

I was really hungry, so I had the pan heat a bit high and my eggs got a little browned, but I didn't even care. I ate my shrimp and eggs with last night's carrot fries. YUM.

Beach snacks are always tricky. Usually we raid the pantry and pack all manner of processed salty and sweet things, processed lunch meat sandwiches, soda and booze (on the weekends that girl child is elsewhere). For this trip, Mom and I hard boiled some eggs and took a bottle of Tabasco for seasoning. I mixed some Fage plain, non-fat yogurt with a packet of stevia and a small palmful of chopped mango. It was fantastically crisp and refreshing when we'd been under the sun for a bit. We also made some peanut butter sandwiches on Ezekial bread and took some local honey to drizzle on top. Water and tea instead of soda and one alcoholic drink instead of five. Who knew the beach doesn't really wobble at the end of each trip?

 

My reward for all my good efforts? On Monday morning, I made my Mom a special breakfast that her mom used to make. Homemade biscuits, sausage and gravy, and eggs scrambled with a bit of bacon grease. This is the cooking that goes back to my roots, and a girl can't live on protein and veggies all the time (85-90% of the time, yes). So here was my Monday yum I shared with my mom and girl child.

I hope that you and yours had a safe and happy holiday weekend!

Clean Eating, OhFeelYa Style...

Hello there! I've missed you all dreadfully, but it's been a crazy May/June. I'm teaching a ton right now, drowning in the grading, and gearing up to start as chair of my department at school in July. Also, I've retired from derby and needed a new hobby. My best friend and I started lifting weights about five days a week six weeks ago. It really seemed like a waste to eat a lot of crap and then go sweat for hours at the gym, so I had to revise my food plan a little bit. None of this is really revolutionary, but I thought I'd post about it anyway because it's pretty revolutionary for me. And it's all nice and light for summer.

Courtesy of my sweet sister. Swoon, Leonardo.

First off is sautéed shrimp and broccoli with sriracha. I love the ease of this one. I got a giant bag of cooked, frozen shrimp at Trader Joe's. In the morning, I put a handful of shrimp in a bowl in the fridge to thaw for the evening. I also usually get two heads of organic broccoli and steam it all at once and eat on it for the week. So I get a skillet hot (about medium), drizzle a tiny bit of sesame oil in it, and then add the shrimp, broccoli, garlic salt, Mrs. Dash, and some sesame seeds. Just toss it around until everything is hot, drizzle with sriracha, and serve with a side of cottage cheese. Yum!

Here's a variation with carrots and cauliflower with some kalamata olives on the side. 

I love any kind of lean red meat. And to be honest, not-so-lean red meat. This is some filet from a local ranch. I marinated it in red wine, crushed garlic cloves, rosemary, salt and pepper. To cook, I just seared it off on a high heat on both sides, turned the heat down, and put a lid on it for a few minutes. Season and let it rest before you cut it up. I layered it over fresh spinach, alfalfa sprouts a friend grew for me, avocado, and drizzled it with balsamic vinegar. Served with black-eyed peas and green beans. 

This is one of my favorites. It's a turkey loin from Trader Joe's. I marinated it in crushed garlic, white wine, salt, pepper, sage, and thyme. I seared it off all the way around on a med-high heat, covered it in turkey broth I made and canned from the Thanksgiving turkey, and let it simmer until cooked through. You really don't want to overcook the turkey loin. While it rested, I chopped some garlic, olives (green and kalamata), and sun-dried tomatoes and sautéed them in a little olive oil. Served with steamed asparagus. I love the salty tomatoes and olives with this mild-flavored meat. Turkey loin is surprisingly moist if not overcooked. I apologize for my fancy china; I frequently just help both mine and the girl child's dinner onto her plastic ware.  

Below are some of my favorite snacks. Tuna fish with Tabasco sauce and edamame. Yum! 

Steamed broccoli and cottage cheese. I'm sort of obsessed with cottage cheese right now. Large curd. Small curd is weird.

I saved my favorite for further down this list. Below is turkey (I know processed lunch meat sucks, but I did get the organic, nitrate-free kind, so cut me some slack, okay? Eating right is really hard) spread with some homemade sriracha humus (you can easily make this with store-bought plain hummus mixed with as much sriracha as you like if you don't want to really make humus all the way from scratch), avocado, and alfalfa sprouts. Roll it up, and you will be the envy of your office break room. Served with strawberries from my garden! 

I love fish. A lot. I should eat more of it. Below is cod with a tiny sprinkle of breadcrumbs, seared quickly in a little coconut oil with lots of lemon juice. Steamed broccoli and summer squash with Mrs. Dash as a side.



I have also discovered the joy that is ground bison. I get it at the Natural Grocer's, and it's really good mixed with anything. This is not a pretty picture below, I will warn you. When I'm less tired, I make bison meatballs, and they're prettier. However, tonight I was starving, so I just chunked it up in the pan and ate it with black quinoa and steamed carrots and edamame. I mix the bison with some chopped garlic, garlic salt, and Worcestershire sauce before I make it into meatballs or cook it. Btw, if you have a rice cooker (I couldn't live without mine--all this on the blog, and I CANNOT COOK RICE), it will steam quinoa perfectly for you.  

I'm surprised at how much I'm enjoying both the weight lifting and the clean eating. I usually eat a piece of Ezekial bread with organic peanut butter on it from the Natural Grocer's before I hit the gym, a protein shake after, two meals like what is pictured above with a snack or a protein bar in between somewhere. I eat two cheat meals a week, and my God, are they glorious, but otherwise I avoid fast food and processed flour and sugar. This is a pretty different way of living for me, but I'm kind of liking it. And I'm getting over my aversion to vegetables.



Squats!

I would love to know what you all eat when you're working out a lot! It's so easy to get stuck in a rut. I hope this has given you some ideas, and I'd love some in return!

The Economical Kitchen--Strawberries and Muffins to Make You Swoon

The strawberries are so pretty at the store right now; I cannot resist them. (One thing I try to always buy organic is strawberries. They are one of the most heavily chemical-laden fruit available. See this link to an NPR story about California strawberries.) However, I wound up with a surplus of fruit last week, and my girl-child was in a rabid banana phase, so I wanted to preserve my strawberries. I love, love, love dehydrated strawberries. The dehydration process makes their tart/sweet flavor even more pronounced. So I cut them into even pieces and dehydrated them. Depending on how thick you cut your slices, they can dehydrate quickly, so keep an eye on them. Chunkier slices will make a more gummy-bear sort of consistency, and very thin slices will become almost like paper. I like a happy medium. When they were done, I bagged them and put them in the freezer. They can last for up to a year this way.

But they didn't even last a week in the freezer. I got hungry for Chunky Monkey Muffins. I started making these a long time ago, but haven't made them in a while. When I came up with this recipe, I started with the Oat Bran Muffin recipe from my pink gingham Betty Crocker cookbook. For the record, let's go ahead and clear the air about muffins. They're cake. Period. Just because we put oatmeal and fruit in them and call them breakfast does not make them any less cake-y. Check out the sugar content on that Starbuck's blueberry crumble muffin. I dare you. 

I, however, like cake for breakfast. But I don't want to feel crappy about it. So I worked out a recipe for really toothsome, chunky muffins with low sugar that can easily be made vegan.  

For the Chunky Monkey, I mix 3/4 cup instant oats (if you want to use steel cut or old-fashioned, just soak them in hot water until they're softened up a bit before you proceed) and 1/4 cup hemp hearts with 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. Throw in 1/4 t. of salt. To the dry mix, I add 2 t. baking powder, 1/2 t. baking soda, and two packets of Stevia. You can sub in any sweetener you like or you can add extra honey below. Mix well.  

Here's the chunky part. I added about 1/4 cup blueberries because they needed to be eaten, 3/4 cup dried strawberries, 1/4 cup shredded coconut, and about 1/3 cup walnuts.At this point, my muffins are really just fruit and nuts held together by a little muffin.

In a small bowl, I combined 1/2 cup buttermilk, 2T. oil, 1/4 cup honey (you can also use maple syrup or agave nectar or whatever you're into), 1 single serving container of no sugar added applesauce (about 4 oz.), an egg, and 1 t. vanilla. Combine gently until all the flour is moistened. Don't overmix, but get it all wet. This will be a pretty thick batter.

Grease your muffin tin. This recipe makes enough for 9 medium-sized muffins. I fill the cups all the way up. I always fill the remaining cups with water to add moisture to the baking environment. Bake at 350 for about 14-15 minutes. You don't want to overdo these, as the oatmeal and whole-wheat flour will dry out quickly. However, if you catch them just at the right moment (when the knife tip comes out with just a smidge of batter on it), they're warm and soft and full of texture. They're not pretty, but they taste great and aren't too shabby for you. I have also made these with rice milk instead of buttermilk and Ener-G egg replacement for a lower calorie, vegan version. If you go this route, add a bit more applesauce and oil for moisture. I love to use organic coconut or grapeseed oil in these.

These muffins are rad because they're so versatile. Add dried bananas, slivered almonds, pumpkin or chia seeds, or my favorite, dried cherries. The recipe is after the break!